Why are Arsenal sending Joe Willock back to Newcastle on loan?

It was clear in the first half of last season that Joe Willock was not trusted enough by Mikel Arteta to give him and regular game time with the Arsenal first team, having played just 7 times in the Premier League up to January.

But after being sent on loan to Newcastle and given a steady run of games Willock scored and amazing eight goals in 14 appearances to help the Toon pull away from the relegation dogfight.

After such sensational form it made sense for Arteta to use the Londoner more regularly this season, but now, according to the Mirror, Willock is set to return to the North-East for another season on loan.

Willock didn’t appear in Arsenal’s friendly at Hibs on Tuesday and Arteta seemed to refuse to agree that Willock would be in his squad this season. After saying that Smith-Rowe was “100%” staying at Arsenal, Arteta said of Willock: “Joe is part of our plans, he’s our player and in the time that he is here we will try to make the most out of him,”

“He had a great experience on loan. He was, I think, one of the most important players for [Newcastle’s] survival.”

So, Arteta didn’t say Willock was “100%” staying at Arsenal, like he did with Smith-Rowe, so it seems likely that the Newcastle rumours are true, but with the 21 year-old showing such fine form on loan, it makes no sense to not give him the chance to reproduce that form at the Emirates this coming season.

He scored more goals in his last 7 games for Newcastle than the rest of our midfield players did in the whole of the season.

Does this loan, with a reported option to buy next summer, make any sense to Arsenal fans?

Darren N

Tags Newcastle Willock

35 Comments

  1. Option to buy wouldn’t make much sense but another year getting regular first team football is a good idea imo. Potential recall in January if he is able to replicate the form he showed at the back end of last season but I’m not convinced that will be the case. I’d love to be wrong but I don’t think he has a very high ceiling.

    1. Willock as of now is better than Lokonga, backed by stats and proven in premier league.. so I just cant understand if we keep lokonga and let willock go. In fact, not only Willock, but guendouzi and torreira too.. Can someone explain to me how Lokonga is better than them?

      1. That’s the same team that offloaded Martinez, now one of the best keepers ok the world (and which had homegrown status)…. They already got rid of guendouzi on the cheap, something they might regret but loaning willock with a buying clause would be for me a mistake. Especially when you keep Willian. Also, i heard they try to offload Lacazette and will ok showed he can score goals it seems. They have Saka and pepe up front but for me they should keep him as a sub, even if it means buying out Willian. Not only he cost a lot, but his shape yesterday is such a bad example for the young guns.

    2. I agree. It is amazing what Willock did last seasons at Newcastle, but he has always been underwhelming at Arsenal and I don’t think he will look that good again anytime soon.

  2. Loaning Willock is a big mistake in my opinion. Either sell him now or bring him back to the Arsenal 1st team.

    Currently we could get a relatively decent fee for him based on the end of last season.

    After this loan he’ll only have 1 year left on his contract and will likely be sold for peanuts then.

  3. It’d be good if he were to sign a new contract with Arsenal before going back on loan so that his sell-on value can be more than 10 pence.

    1. I hope there is someone at arsenal that remember all the mistakes we did in the last years. I mean all these players we lost for nothing (Wilshire, Ramsey…) Or even had to pay for them to leave (ozil, Mustafi). Now it seems we are selling players under their value again : mavropanos who could become one of the best defenders in Germany. And now we might sell xhaka for way lower too. This guy showed just the tremendous leader he is during the euros. Even if he was not a beast here, he proved he can be a beast elsewhere. Should be 25 minimum. Torreira will also be sold for a low fee, i can’t understand why we did not include a compulsory buying clause last year after we gave Atletico 45 for partey. We could have sell him 25m which is very unlikely now.

  4. I think it shows very poor judgement from our damager who is so willing to buy players than coach and develop our home grown talented young players. If Joe is good enough to play in the EPL then he should be good enough to be given his opportunity with us.

    1. g4l, it is difficult to argue against your reasoning.
      If Newcastle United keeps their first team fit, with a few additions, including Joe Willock, should the current Arsenal squad not be improved, Arsenal will be competing directly with them for league position.
      The really interesting situation would have been to see, what a supposedly poor manager like Steve Bruce, would have got from William Saliba and Joe Willock. Newcastle United were one EPL club wanting Saliba on loan.

  5. Good news. He will regress if he stays at Arsenal let him go there, develop further and be ready for the next manager.

    1. “be ready for the next manager”.
      I can’t wait,it’s taking too damn long for that to actually happen.

      ADMIN COMMENT
      I can’t wait to not see your comments again! How many times do I need to say that abuse is not allowed?

      1. Ad PAT Surely Ceemans comment is just his opinion! Is he now not allowed his own free opinion?How is that classed as abuse, even in this “woke” world some of our fans and possibly you(?) live in!

        For clarity, I do not agree with him but surely he has a basic human right to his own opinion? How you can class that as “abuse” astounds me Pat, TBH!

          1. NO DUCKING WAY PAT… THAT IS TAKING THE ALMIGHTY KISS…

            And on that note we would be mugs to let Willock go on another loan as we have lost Guen, Lucas, Cebellaos, the chef in the muppets and possibly Xhaka.

            I don’t think we can buy ourselves outta this one peeps so are reliant on a coach to produce…. awww feck…

  6. He should remain with Arsenal. He represents the young and upcoming core of Arsenal players. If he scores 8 goals in 14 PL matches, why should he not play for us. How many of our midfielders can score as many goals. Just cant understand. Very sad.

    1. This post from gunnerforlife is NOT from gunner4life who posted a an earlier comment regarding JW. So gunnerforlife i respectfully suggest you should use another name for future postings.

  7. I just wonder all this hypocritical nonsense. Just a while ago, we were screaming about three England players being racially abused and the need to curb it and any abuse whatsoever. And here is Ceemahn calling Mr Arterta, a man, a father, a loving husband, a “Sh*t hole”
    If you want to air your views, do it respectfully.

    1. On another note, Admin Pat has in the past blocked a number of my comments simply because I referred to Arteta by his favorite nickname. Talk about double standards.

      1. I will block any abusive comments and YOUR school playground nickname for our manager just shows how immature you are.
        Grow up before to try and converse in adult conversations….

      2. ahmad73, how old are you ? Your pathetic use of a childish nickname for Arteta confirms that you are not grown up yet. Well done Admin Pat for banning him.

  8. Why?? To give him regular first team and prem football i guess. U cant give him that guarantee in Arsenal. If it is loan without option to buy and Newcastle guarantee regular first team football for willock its the best scenario i can see for Kids development. wasnt that obvious to all who have little bit of football knowledge and common sense?

    1. TG, my and other commentators believe Joe Willock has proved he is good enough to fight for a place in the starting eleven. His stat’s last season are better than many players, Arsenal has been connected to and he is already an Arsenal player. Surely if Arsenal need two players for every position, Willock is a good B2B midfielder backup to Partey?

  9. @gooner4life: Your title spells different from mine, so dont worry we are different from each other. Also, Willock is capable to land a starting place at Arsenal and his performances have improved over the last 2 seasons, including the loan stint at Newcastle. So the point is, why loan out a player who is Arsenal through and through and is performing well, scoring and assisting goals, and as suggested we need 2 players for every position, so even if Willock does not start games he can play an important role for Arsenal.

  10. Sending out a player who produced such fine form last year does not make sense. In fact on the performance of last year Willick is better than any attacking MF Arsenal have including Smith R. In Edu & Arteta Arsenal have two very in experienced people

    1. Vital, let’s hope that Edu and Arteta can perform as “two very experienced people” and justify your faith in them.

  11. If Willock goes out we only have Partey and Elneny in the midfield. Lokonga will make that 3 midfielders, when and if he signs. We will need at least a couple more. Definitely a creative maestro. Well we need to sign soon….the pre-season has started poorly and our first game is on Friday 13th August vs Brentford. Not long and little is happening. Let’s pray we are going to get some TOP players.

  12. Because arsenal fans like new toys. grass is greener on the other side. you cant win anything with kids. jokes aside.

    Im think can he replicate his newcastle form next season with arsenal if he stays. We cant say.

    Lets send him on loan to newcastle again and see how he performs. newcastle & joe are intrested. We have cover for him.

    1. AKB, who is the cover for Joe Willock? Wouldn’t Willock be cover for Thomas Partey, when he leaves for Afcon?

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